Reflecting on a Successful Women in Management Week

Margarita Nachevnik, Co-written by Laura Fletcher | March 9, 2016

When the Women in Management Club (WIM) met in September to set our agenda for the year, we established two main goals: to facilitate thoughtful and inclusive dialogue across genders and affinity groups, and to build a community of warmth, support, and solidarity for women and allies.

WIM Week has been at the forefront of this agenda for the entire year, because it is an opportunity for members of the community who may not traditionally attend WIM events to explore what our organization has to offer. We approached the week by asking ourselves what kinds of events would a) support our goals and b) be widely engaging for the entire SOM community. Planning two and sometimes three events for each day, WIM’s committees came together to create a full week of programming focused on engaging with SOM students on critical issues such as gender equality, intersectionality, and confidence.

Julia Pimsleur YC ’90, founder of Little Pim and author *Million Dollar Women*, spoke as a guest of the Entrepreneurship and WIM Clubs during WIM Week

The week began with a workshop led by WIM Co-Chair Laura Fletcher on asking “killer questions,” a special WIM Voices event, and a kickoff party at Tavern New Haven. On Tuesday of WIM Week, the Advocacy project launched at lunch and we enjoyed the Community Committee’s chocolate tasting in the evening.

On Wednesday, we held a conversation about intersectionality (experiencing the intersection of multiple different kinds of discrimination, for example both racism and sexism). We also hosted the first WIM Power Hour, which featured four incredible professors (Sharon Oster, Heidi Brooks, Tori Brescoll, and Fiona Scott Morton) presenting on some aspect of their careers, research, or lives that we would not know about through classes with them. This was one of the highlights of the week for us, because we were able to listen to these fearless female faculty members candidly share their experiences and insights.

The biggest event for WIM week was held on Thursday, when we presented “Beyond Bros and Broads,” which featured four skits, all written and performed by SOM students about topics ranging from privilege in the workplace to appropriate conduct at parties. Thursday concluded with a capstone discussion about how women may be keeping each other from equity, particularly through slut-shaming and sexual double standards for men and women, led by the Advocacy Committee, which also left a lot of food for thought.

The week culminated with the first annual Young Women’s Leadership Launch (YWLL), organized by the Outreach Committee, and the brainchild of the incredible Angelina Cardona and Greg Muecke. We were thrilled to host 60 high-school women from the greater New Haven area and guide them through various career tracks like medicine, business, engineering, and politics.

We want to thank everyone on WIM Leadership and the YWLL team that made this week as incredible as it was, and also to thank the students and faculty that attended these events. The open questions, thoughtful conversations, and deepened bonds you generated are what made WIM Week 2016 such a success!